Chapter Thirty-nine

Storm's POV

" What do you mean?" I frowned, confused. I didn't understand what he was talking about.

"All the talk about flowers that you were having with Marie. You don't like gardening and flowers."

" How do you know that?" I questioned.

"I'm your mate, I've never seen you gush over flowers, there were tons of flowers in your hospital room. And for gardening, we have land at the back of our house, you've never entered there and planted anything." He said, damn, he was quite observant. I couldn't care less about gardening and flowers.

I sighed and sat on the couch. "Fine, you caught me. I don't care about those things, I just said it because I noticed that Marie was into them, I need an ally here, and who better than the hosts." I batted my eyes and smiled at him.

Noah calmed down and his shoulders shook with laughter. " You're quite devious. What you did was dishonest but very smart. I would never have thought about that in a million years."

" I know it was dishonest but I had to do it. You told me the women here were going to be vicious and would prey on me, If I have Marie, the host on my side, she won't let them attack me."

Noah nodded, " That's true but Marie won't always be with you. You should be prepared to fight some battles yourself."

" I know, I can't totally rely on Marie but it's still good to have her as a backup. I'm tired, I think I'm going to take a little nap before dining." I took my luggage into the room and changed then took a shower. I was so tired that I fell asleep immediately after my head hit the pillow.

*********

"Are you almost ready? We're going to be late." Noah said as he hurriedly combed his hair in front of the mirror. I rushed past him in my underwear, pushed him out of the way, and stood in front of the mirror with my makeup bag in my hand. We had overslept and woke up just a few minutes before dinner.

"I'm so not ready, I don't even know what I'm going to wear and my hair is scattered." I cried out as I rummaged through the bag for my foundation.

"If we get there late we won't be making a good impression. Everyone will think that we don't respect the host." Noah said hastily, he was putting on his shoes. I rolled my eyes, I couldn't care what anyone thought.

"Calm down, we'll be fine. You know, if we're going to be late we might as well be fashionably late." I smirked and pulled a chair and sat down to properly do my makeup.

"You're not even worried, are you?" Noah paused and looked at me in shock. I shrugged and smiled.

"Not really and so should you. I don't care why you're so worried. It's just a dinner between the Alphas and Lunas. It's not like the King and Queen will be there." I laughed at my statement.

Noah's face remained stoic. " The King and Queen will be there." My lipstick froze my lips.

" What! You're joking right?"

"I'm not. This is the opening dinner, they will be here." He said and buttoned up his dark-blue shirt. I dropped the lipstick, stood, and hurriedly rushed to my luggage. I pulled out a short red off-shoulder dress and also brought out my black platform heels.

"And you didn't think to tell me this. I thought it was only going to be the different packs." I wailed. I hastily put on the dress.

" I'm sorry, I thought I already told you about it." I shot him a glare and he had the decency to look apologetic. I brushed my hair, pulled it into a ponytail, and put on my shoes.

He was lucky I was too stressed to snap at him. I checked myself in the mirror, it wasn't my best look but it would have to do. Whoever said redheads don't look good in red, hadn't met me.

"I'm ready. Let's go." I grabbed my purse and phone.

" Wow, you look amazing." He complimented me, and I smiled.

" Thank you. Let's go we're already late." We left the room in a hurry and soon arrived at the restaurant. The hostess took us to our table and we saw that we were the last ones to arrive. The King and Queen sat at the head of the table, everyone turned to look at us when we arrived, I was going to die of embarrassment.

The seats that had been left for us were close to the King, it seemed like the sitting arrangement was according to rank and Noah's pack was highly ranked. We bowed at the King and Queen who smiled at us and we hurriedly took our seats.

"Noah, Storm, how nice of you to join us." King Benedict smiled at us. Oh now, I really wanted to die.

"Your majesty, we apologize for coming late, we overslept." Noah's calm voice was so shocking to me. How could he be so cool and collected when I was freaking out.

"I understand, the journey was long and you're newly mated after all." King Benedict said in a jovial voice. Everyone laughed at his words. Hold on, this man was suggesting that the reason we overslept was that we were fucking like rabbits. I quickly picked a glass, poured some water, and drank to calm my nerves. I focused on the menu as if my life depended on it.

"Thank you for understanding," Noah said. Understanding what, this man didn't understand shit, I wanted to correct him but I knew it was best to let it be.

"Storm, how are you settling in as a new Luna?" Queen Claire asked. I raised my head to see her smiling at me with her kind eyes.

I felt a wave of calmness. "I'm settling in fine. The pack and I are slowly getting to know each other and accepting each other." I could feel the eyes of the other Lunas as I spoke to the Queen, I was sure they didn't like the attention she was giving to me.

"You'll be fine, you're still new at it. In another six months or one year, you'll be a pro." She said.

" Thank you, I hope so." The waiter came and we ordered our food. Noah introduced me to the different Alphas and Lunas while we waited for our food. It was just for show because I had already memorized each pack that was here. I knew their strengths and weaknesses.

Our food soon arrived and conversation flowed easily. I spoke when spoken to because I didn't understand most of the things they were talking about and also I didn't give a flying fuck.

Dinner ended uneventfully and we moved to the lounge to relax and have a few drinks. Noah left me alone to talk to the King and some Alphas. I had only been alone for a few minutes when I started hearing snickering at my back. Some Lunas were whispering about me and giving me the side eye. I just knew it was going to be a long night. I was seated on a velvet sofa in the dimly lit corner of the room. I used my solitude as a time to assess my competition, trying to rank them by their nastiness to know who was going to be my biggest competitor.

After some minutes one of them approached me.

"Excuse me, I'm Luna Morgan from Blue Moon pack, is it true that you're not a Lycan?" She asked, looking at me with taunting eyes. She knew the answer but she just wanted me to say it. She wasn't the ringleader, I could tell she was nervous but she tried to cover it up with overconfidence.

I smiled and took a slow sip of my wine, making sure to waste time then I stood slowly. I could see her right eye start to twitch slightly.

"Yes, I'm not. I'm a werewolf." Morgan gasped and placed her hand on her chest like she was shocked, I almost rolled my eyes.

"Wow, it must have been so weird for you to find out that you're mated to a Lycan." She said.

" It was but I've managed to get used to it."

" Of course, you must have been so brave." She reached out and patted my hand like she was concerned about me but I knew what she was doing. She thought I was gullible and would immediately flock over to her because she showed me a little attention.

I decided to humor her by playing along. " Really?" I looked at her with big needy eyes, " Sometimes I feel so lonely and it's always like I don't fit in." I pouted.

" Oh sweetie, you'll be fine. If you need to talk to anyone, I'm here." She pulled me into a tight hug. I chuckled to myself. Jackpot.

"Thank you, I'll definitely take you up on your offer," I told her, we broke the hug and she walked back to her friends, I watched them as she told them everything she found out about me. They looked at me and I acted like I was drinking from my wine glass. I saw them snicker amongst themselves as they looked at me. They really lacked subtlety.

"Rainstorm, you good?" I turned shocked to see Noah by my side, I had been too focused on Morgan and her friends to notice him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't know you were done talking to the King. What were you guys talking about?" I dropped my empty glass on the small stool next to my chair.

"We were talking about the new set of enforcers that will be chosen and added to the team of royal enforcers."

" Wow, how are the enforcers chosen?" I was intrigued, imagine being a royal enforcer, what a prestigious job.

"From the Olympics, the best athletes are added to the Royal team. They are selected from the different packs." Noah explained, he sat on my chair's hand and twirled a strand of my hair between his fingers.

"That's good, I really hope that some of our pack members will make the team."

" Oh, they will, trust me. They always do. I saw you talking to Luna Morgan, what did she want?" Noah's voice went tense when he mentioned Morgan. I wondered why.

"She wanted to introduce herself and find out some things about me."

" She's not a good woman and her friends are terrible, especially Amber, she's very slimy." Noah clenched his fist as he talked about them.

"How come you know so much about them?" I asked intrigued.

" They are friends with my mom, do I need to expatiate on it?" He sighed.

" Say no more. I already knew she wasn't a good person. I caught them whispering about me behind my back and then after Morgan had talked to me, I also caught them laughing at me. Trust me, they are not my favorite people. Who's Amber though?" I needed to be wary of her, it was possible she would be my biggest competitor.

"She's the tall buxom blonde with an air of ' I'm better than all of you ' around her." Noah scoffed. I laughed at his description, I spotted her immediately. Unfortunately, we made eye contact, she looked at me like I was filth and I couldn't hold myself back. I gave her my biggest ' fuck you ' smile with a ' bring it on ' glint in my eyes.